Backup error on tape drive - newbie

[evild]

Last night our Sun Solaris server backup failed. Backup data is sent to a tape drive everynight.

I looked at the logs today (/var/adm/messages) and I have this:

Sep 12 00:17:50 mint unix: WARNING: ID[SUNWpd.glm.parity_check.6010]
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint unix: WARNING: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3,1 (glm1):
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint SCSI bus DATA IN phase parity error
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint unix: WARNING: ID[SUNWpd.glm.parity_check.6010]
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint unix: WARNING: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3,1 (glm1):
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint SCSI bus DATA IN phase parity error
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint unix: WARNING: ID[SUNWpd.glm.parity_check.6010]
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint unix: WARNING: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3,1 (glm1):
Sep 12 00:17:50 mint SCSI bus DATA IN phase parity error


I have this hundreds and hundres of times until it decided to timeout.

I dont know much about solaris or unix for that matter. What does this error mean?
Could it be as simple as the tape deivce name in our backup script being incorrect [we have confusion over this in the past here] or does this erro suggest something more serious?

Hopefully this is the right forum to post in.

 

[KenCunningham]

Sounds like a hardware or cable problem. Can you try re-fixing the cable to the port (take it out and plug it in again, making sure it's securely fixed) and try a test to the drive. Hopefully it's somehing as simple as that, but post back if it doesn't work. Incidentally, I'd recommend posting such questions on the main Solaris forum rather than here, as there's much more traffic on there. Cheers.

 

[SamBones]

Yes, I would check the cable first too.

One thing to remember, SCSI is a bus, so ANY device on that chain or controller could be causing this error. It could be that when the system is trying to poll the tape drive, another device on that controller could be pooping on the bus so the system thinks it's getting errors back from the tape drive.

Try to determine if there's another SCSI device on that controller that works.

You might also try a reconfig reboot, but that could loose your tape drive completely if the system doesn't see it when reconfiguring.

Maybe try taking it to the [tt]ok[/tt] prompt and do a [tt]probe-scsi[/tt] or [tt]probe-scsi-all[/tt] to see if the tape shows up. If it does, make sure it has a correct device alias and then do a [tt]test tape[/tt] and see what that says.

Have you tried using a head cleaner on it? (just trying to think of everything).

Hope this helps.